Tour d’Irlande East

Irish medical consultants take “maters” into their own hands and hit the road to raise funds for urgently needed hospital equipment.

“On your bike! Let’s do ‘rounds; in our new Ireland East Hospital group!’.

A new Cath Laboratory is urgently needed say the Heart and Lung teams at the Mater Hospital. So they are taking to the road from the 24th to the 27th of May, cycling 500km over four days, in order to raise funds for the urgently needed Cath Laboratory, which will transform the life of patients with heart disease and especially those suffering from Pulmonary Hypertension.

Professor Declan Sugrue, cycle leader said “Our aim is to raise €100k for the third urgently needed Cath Laboratory at the Mater. “We are currently seeing over 6,000 patients each year so therefore having another lab will mean improved access and a better service to our patients”.

While doctors are known to bring their team on ward rounds, Professor Declan Sugrue and Professor Sean Gaine have come together in this novel ‘exercise’ to do a 500km ‘round’ with their team to visit all hospitals in the recently designated Ireland East Hospital Group.

The team plans to cycle to all eleven hospitals in the new group and link up with colleagues conducting a number of clinical networking sessions including a presentation to the Midlands Clinical Group (GPs) in Mullingar on various medical topics including the cardiovascular and respiratory effects of exercise, new developments in thrombosis and an update on pulmonary hypertension.

The special support team behind the cycle include a number of sponsors with the Mater Foundation being a key partner in the overall organisation along with Regina Prenderville on behalf of the Pulmonary Hypertension Association who enthusiastically welcomes the increased diagnostic facilities at the Mater for patients nationwide.

Members of the public are invited to look out for them on the way as all support is welcomed. To sponsor the team or any of the core group of five cyclists who include Prof’s Declan Sugrue and Sean Gaine along with Emmet Reilly and Eddie Mongey (Mater Private) and Colm Moynihan (Sword Medical), Please donate at www.materfoundation.ie

The Four Stages of the event are:

The cycling route covers a distance of 500 km and is divided into four stages. Stage 1 May 24th, Dublin to Wexford General Hospital, Stage 2 May 25th: Wexford to St Lukes Hospital in Kilkenny, Stage 3 May 26th: Kilkenny to the Midlands Regional Hospital in Mulligar. Stage 4: May 27th Mullingar to Dublin with stops at Navan and Cappagh hospitals